- UK: Regime courts Anthropic with London expansion amid Pentagon feud
Source: MSN
“British officials are moving swiftly to court Anthropic after the US Defense Department labeled it a supply-chain risk for refusing military use of its Claude AI system. The designation, currently blocked by a federal judge, has created a diplomatic and regulatory opening for the UK to position itself as a more supportive base for AI firms. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s administration is backing the pitch, which includes expanding Anthropic’s London operations and a potential London Stock Exchange listing.” (04/06/26)
- US appeals court: New Jersey regime cannot regulate Kalshi’s prediction market
Source: Reuters
“A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that New Jersey gaming regulators cannot prevent Kalshi from allowing people in the state to use its prediction market to place financial bets on the outcome of sporting events. A three-judge panel of the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 in finding that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has exclusive jurisdiction over the sports-related event contracts that Kalshi allows people to trade on its platform. … The ruling was in line with the position advanced in other litigation by the CFTC under President Donald Trump’s administration. The regulator last week sued Arizona, Connecticut and Illinois to prevent them from pursuing what it called unlawful efforts to regulate prediction markets.” (04/06/26)
- Trump threatens to jail reporter over leaked rescue of pilot
Source: Times of Israel [Jerusalem]
“US President Donald Trump says a leak to the media about the existence of a second shot-down airman shortly after American troops rescued the first one threatened to upend the entire operation. The rescue of the F-15E pilot on Friday evening was first reported by Israeli media …. ‘We didn’t talk about the first [rescue] for an hour, and then somebody leaked something, which we’ll hopefully find that leaker,’ Trump says during a White House press conference on the weekend rescue mission. … ‘We’re going to go to the media company that released it, and we’re going to say, ‘National security. Give it up or go to jail,” he continues.” (04/06/26)
- Meta to open source versions of its next AI models
Source: Axios
“Meta is preparing to release the first new AI models developed under Alexandr Wang, with plans to eventually offer versions of those models via an open source license, Axios has learned. Meta has been the largest U.S. player to let others modify its frontier models, and there has been growing speculation the company might retreat from that strategy altogether. Before openly releasing versions of the new models, Meta wants to keep some pieces proprietary and to ensure they don’t add new levels of safety risk, according to sources.” (04/06/26)
- Study: Birth weight may play role in stroke risk
Source: NDTV [India]
“Your birth weight may be more important than your current adult weight when it comes to your risk of stroke later in life. A new study hints that people who were born with a low birthweight may face a higher risk of stroke in young adulthood, even if they are not overweight or underweight as adults. This suggests that what happens in the womb and during early birth can leave a long-term mark on the brain’s blood-supply system, which may show up as higher stroke risk several years later. The study is set to be presented at this year’s European Congress on Obesity (ECO2026) in Istanbul, Turkey (12-15 May). Dr Lina Lilja and Dr Maria Bygdell of the University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden, who are study authors and colleagues say that low birthweight can be included in stroke risk assessment for adults.” (04/06/26)
- Newly Obtained Video of Minneapolis Shooting Exposes ICE Gang Lie
Source: New York Times
“Almost immediately after an immigration agent shot and wounded a Venezuelan immigrant in Minneapolis this winter, the federal government cast the injured man as an attempted murderer and the agent as the victim of a brutal beating. … video footage of the shooting, newly obtained by The New York Times, raises questions about why it took weeks for the government’s case to fall apart. The video contradicts the agent’s claim that three assailants had beaten him with a shovel and broom for roughly three minutes before he opened fire. Instead, the confrontation depicted in the video lasts about 12 seconds and shows two men struggling with the agent. It shows no sustained attack with a shovel.” (04/06/26)
- Scientists identify “neural fingerprint” of psychedelic drugs in the brain
Source: The Guardian [UK]
“Scientists have identified a hallmark signature produced by psychedelic drugs in the human brain when users experience their mind-altering effects. The ‘neural fingerprint’ of the psychedelic trip was spotted among hundreds of brain scans of people on LSD, psilocybin, DMT, mescaline and ayahuasca, pointing to a shared impact on the brain’s behaviour. The finding emerged from a major study that combined 11 brain imaging datasets from around the world in an effort to build a reliable picture of how the substances temporarily rewire the brain. The insights are increasingly important as researchers investigate the drugs in clinical trials as potential therapies for severe mental health and neurological conditions such as depression, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder.” (04/06/26)
- Israelis don’t pay for the weapons we “sell” to them — US taxpayers do
Source: Responsible Statecraft
by Stephen Semler“U.S. arms sales to Israel aren’t really sales, at least not in the typical sense. Israel’s position as purchaser in these weapons deals isn’t synonymous with funder. This is made clear in the arms sales notifications themselves. Consider the four most recent notified arms sales to Israel published in the Federal Register: $740 million for armored personnel carriers, $1.98 billion for tactical vehicles and accessories, $3.8 billion for attack helicopters and related weaponry, and $150 million for utility helicopters and parts. After ‘Prospective Purchaser,’ all these notifications list Government of Israel. After ‘[Funding Source,’ all list Foreign Military Financing — or FMF, the U.S. military aid program through which Israel receives at least $3.3 billion a year. In practice, FMF functions as a gift card for Israel to spend on weapons. U.S. taxpayers are stuck paying for the gift card.” (04/06/26)
- Thin Libertarianism: Ideal Theory, PPE, & the Real World
Source: ProSocial Libertarians
by Andrew Jason Cohen“My own ideal theory is a classical liberal (libertarian) theory based on toleration. The view is necessarily very thin as it accepts that each person should be free to choose and act on their own conception of the good and thus live very different sorts of lives. All of those are to be tolerated unless they involve harm to others. … Importantly, having an ideal theory does not mean thinking we ought to stop with ideal theory. … I must recognize that there will be scenarios in the real world that challenge my own intuitions about what ought to be permitted when people would have difficulty exiting even when their right to do so is protected and figure out how to respond to that.” (04/06/26)
https://prosociallibertarians.substack.com/p/thin-libertarianism-ideal-theory
- US Troops In Iran Need To Start Disobeying Orders
Source: Caitlin Johnstone, Rogue Journalist
by Caitlin Johnstone“At this point if you’re in the US military you have a moral obligation to start refusing orders. Desert. Become a conscientious objector. Ideally, get everyone together and launch a full-scale military coup. We’re in ‘Mad King’ territory. Someone’s gotta do what needs to be done. Promoters of this war told the world it was about liberating the Iranian people from tyranny to bring them freedom and democracy. Now that they got their war it’s about bombing them ‘back to the Stone Age,’ stealing their oil, and blowing up their bridges and power plants. The only people dumber than Americans who bought into Trump’s ‘ending the wars’ shtick are the Iranians who believed the United States was going to bring freedom to their country.” (04/06/26)
- The Populist War on Technological Capacity
Source: The Dispatch
by Mar Oestreich“This global race for AI dominance through abundant, scalable power and computation is already underway. Yet much of our domestic debate fixates on scarcity as if the pie were fixed forever, which leads to moralized calls about who then gets to use the limited resources we have. Once electricity becomes a hierarchy of virtue, you may not like where you land. This reflex is bipartisan. On the right, suspicion settles on coastal tech elites siphoning power from ‘real Americans.’ On the left, it gathers around corporate excess and environmental harm. When confidence in builders erodes, it does not leave a vacuum: Gatekeepers step forward. … Once you decide the pie cannot grow, an authority must divide it, looking for villains, assigning virtue, declaring some uses essential and others indulgent.” (04/06/26)
- Overcoming Failures of Imagination
Source: Underthrow
by Max Borders“In a 1961 speech, President John F. Kennedy captured the imagination of the people. He asked the world to see a man on the moon. Back then, such could only be a feat of technocracy — the idea that officials can work wonders if they have enough experts and largesse. And they did it. But, the moon landing had been peak technocracy — pushing the limits of what could be achieved in terms of expense, tax funding, and complication. Prior to that, though, Kennedy had put a symbol in people’s minds.” (04/06/26)
https://underthrow.substack.com/p/overcoming-failures-of-imagination
- One Blow After Another: The Leadership Team from Hell on a Hell of a Planet
Source: TomDispatch
by Michael Klare“On March 13th, buried in the New York Times’s coverage of the U.S.-Israel-Iran conflict was a headline that would have been easy to miss amid the din of war coverage: ‘As El Niño Simmers, Scientists Warn of Weather Extremes Starting in Late Summer.’ Many readers may not even have noticed it, but that article noted that scientists at the Climate Prediction Center, a part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, had raised their estimate for an El Niño event this summer from 60% to about 80%. Admittedly, in this strange world of ours, that hardly seemed like an earth-shattering revelation. But if you had read the piece more closely, your alarm bells should instantly have gone off.” (04/05/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/the-leadership-team-from-hell-on-a-hell-of-a-planet/
- For better tech, we must think bigger than content moderation
Source: hypertext
by Kristen Collins“Content-focused policies risk censoring speech without fixing the underlying business model that pushes noxious material where it will do the most damage.” (04/06/26)
https://hypertext.niskanencenter.org/p/for-better-tech-we-must-think-bigger
- Ten Enduring Lessons from Adam Smith
Source: The Daily Economy
by Nikolai G Wenzel“From technocrats to central planners, the temptation to engineer society persists. Adam Smith saw the dangers clearly.” (04/06/26)
- Artificial Intelligence Versus Human Stupidity
Source: CounterPunch
by John Feffer“Perhaps Donald Trump was persuaded—by his generals, by his buddies in Silicon Valley, by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—that American military superiority would make quick work of the Iranian military. In addition to the aircraft carriers, the Stealth bombers, the Tomahawk missiles, and the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Trump could also call upon the assistance of Claude and his buddies.” (04/06/26)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/04/06/artificial-intelligence-versus-human-stupidity/
- As the Death Toll Rises in Trump’s Immigration Crackdown, Support for ICE Shrinks
Source: Reason
by Fiona Harrigan“Deaths in ICE custody hit a 20-year high in 2025 and a majority now say the agency’s actions make Americans less safe.” (for publication 05/26)
https://reason.com/2026/04/06/a-deadly-immigration-crackdown/
- AOC lifts the veil: She won’t help protect innocent civilians, if they’re Israelis
Source: New York Post
by staff“Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Queens) is now opposed to funding defensive shields that could save the lives of innocent civilians — if they are Israelis. Seems like she’s trying to win back the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America that spurned her in 2024 for not hating the Jewish state enough. Or maybe she’s just showing her true colors. Her re-hardened anti-Israel position comes even though she isn’t facing any significant opposition in her re-election campaign, which raises and spends so much money it’s more like a good-sized business than a scrappy Bronx-Queens political operation; she doesn’t need the DSA’s endorsement. But she got her fellow antisemitic socialists mad at her because she abstained from voting to deny funding for Israel’s strictly defensive Iron Dome project, which protects Israelis — Jewish and Arab — from the tens of thousands of missiles that have been lobbed from Iran’s regional terror proxies.” (04/06/26)
- Justice Delayed Forever
Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob“In 2023, the families of persons who had died because of Boeing’s lies about safety were told that it was too early to challenge the Justice Department’s deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with Boeing. Now, in 2026, the same Fifth Circuit says that their challenge is too late. When was the perfect Goldilocks moment?” (04/06/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/04/06/justice-delayed-forever/
- Free Trade Is Dead in Washington
Source: Foreign Policy
by Bob Davis“To understand U.S. trade policy, it’s best to think of chaos theory: the search for a pattern behind seemingly haphazard events. Donald Trump is the chaos agent in this case, threatening countries on a whim with sky-high tariffs like the Queen of Hearts thundering, ‘Off with their heads.’ But beyond the seeming disorder, there is more of a Washington consensus on trade policy than is often not commonly recognized — and it dates back to the late Obama years.” (04/06/26)
- Trump and Netanyahu: Two Madmen Playing God
Source: Common Dreams
by Jeffrey D Sachs“Donald Trump and his partner in war crimes, Benjamin Netanyahu, are jointly waging a war of murderous aggression against Iran, a nation of 90 million people. They are in the grip of three cascading pathologies. The first is personality: both are malignant narcissists. The second is the arrogance of power: men who possess the power to command nuclear annihilation and feel, in consequence, no restraint. The third, and most dangerous of all, is religious delusion: two men who believe, and are told daily by those around them, that they are messiahs doing God’s work. Each pathology exacerbates the others, so that together they put the world in unprecedented danger.” (04/06/26)
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/netanyahu-trump-psychopaths-war-criminals
- A better world since 1968
Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Madsen Pirie“In December 1968, three very brave men went around the moon in the first manned flight of the Saturn 5 rocket. Four years later in 1972, the last astronauts of the Apollo programme visited the moon. Now, 58 years after that first flight, and 54 years since the last one, it is happening again and people are asking if the world is better now that it was then. The answer is an emphatic YES. The most dramatic event has been the decrease in extreme poverty.” (04/06/26)
https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/myda7mk96sukrw68mz7hsi9c8uz4i5
- MAGA Champion Need Not Apply
Source: The American Conservative
by Spencer Neale“Strange bedfellows defined the coalition that carried Donald Trump to the presidency in 2016 and 2024. Evangelicals, libertarians, nationalists, and traditional Republicans, groups with little agreement on core policy, laid down their knives on those November Tuesdays to rally behind a whimsical, big-city showman who built, and often mismanaged, his inherited empire. Trump was their champion — a comedian, a performer, but, most importantly, a fighter. If MAGA was anything, it was a coalition bound less by shared policy goals than by a shared sense of grievance and a love for the game. And we were played. I should know. I voted for the man. His faults now exposed for the world to see are, in part, my own.” (04/06/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/maga-champion-need-not-apply/
- After the Flood in Minnesota
Source: Law & Liberty
by Caleb Whitmer“Beyond the partisan melodrama, the ongoing welfare fraud scandal proves how dangerous ‘cataclysmic money’ can be for communities.” (04/06/26)
- The Elusive Giffen Good, Once Again
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Mark Thornton“The mysterious Giffen has once again risen from the ashes. In this iteration, it’s silver in the red-hot precious metals market. This so-called anomaly makes for a great story and interesting explanation, but it does not represent a genuine exception or a valid attack on the fundamental laws of economics. It is another example of the questionable scholarship of the Grand Wizard of Mainstream economics, Alfred Marshall.” (04/06/26)
- The Terrorist in Chief
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“Terrorism, according to ICE — yes, that ICE — ‘involves violence or the threat of violence against people or property to further a particular ideology.’ The official website goes on to declare that ‘Terrorists do not care who they hurt or kill to achieve their goals.’ If you haven’t read Donald Trump’s Truth Social post from Sunday, above, take a minute to do so. Don’t rely on sanewashed descriptions in the media. And then tell me that Trump doesn’t perfectly fit his own officials’ definition of a terrorist.” (04/06/26)
- Adam Smith on Slavery
Source: EconLog
by Jack Russell Weinstein“Smith did not think that sympathy would lead to masters sympathizing with their slaves, but he seemed to have faith that it could motivate abolitionists to push for change. He did not think politics or religion could end slavery, but had enough faith in economic persuasion that he dedicated time to the problem in his classes. He knew that he was educating the next generation of Scottish leaders and lamented, to them, that he doubted economic motivation would be sufficient for masters to liberate those under their yoke: ‘It is indeed allmost impossible that it should ever be totally or generally abolished,’ even in ‘a republican government.’ What, then, could the abolitionist hope for? The answer may be only the uneven progress of history.” (04/06/26)
- Pam Bondi Deserved to Be Fired Long Ago
Source: Town Hall
by Derek Hunter“Pam Bondi was fired last week because she deserved to be. I know she’s popular among some, but she was not popular with President Donald Trump, and that’s all that really mattered. The leadership in the Justice Department, including the FBI, has been horrible and feckless. Now that she’s gone, someone has to say that former Attorney General Bondi deserved to lose her job.” (04/06/26)
- Could Your Costco and Walmart Discounts Be Banned?
Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Daniel J Mitchell“Recent court actions could finally derail one of the most laughable big government regulatory crusades in recent memory. At issue is a case that the Biden-era Federal Trade Commission brought against Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the nation’s largest alcohol distributor. The agency alleges that the company violated a 1930s law, the Robinson–Patman Act, by offering larger discounts to retailers that buy in bulk. The underlying issue is simple: Should the government punish companies for giving consumers lower prices? Because that is effectively what this case does.” (04/06/26)
https://fee.org/articles/could-your-costco-and-walmart-discounts-be-banned/
- Beware the “experts”
Source: spiked
by Cory Franklin“In a Chicago Tribune article last year I wrote, ‘In an ever more complex society, have we run the risk of becoming overly dependent on experts – delegating decisions and responsibilities to them that are outside their domain?’ Several readers called me out, justifiably. They asked whether it was a good idea for anyone other than an expert to fly my plane or perform my open-heart surgery. Point taken. I have spent a lot of time both in planes and operating rooms. Without question, I want experts calling the shots in both of them. … My mistake was in failing to point out the distinction between experts with technical knowledge (the ones who actually know how to do things) and experts who have earned their status primarily as a result of their educational credentials or public opinions.” (04/06/26)
- Bondi’s Replacement Will be Just as Bad
Source: The Contrarian
by Jennifer Rubin“Donald Trump fired Attorney General Pam Bondi for doing his bidding poorly. Her vindictive prosecutions flamed out. Her refusal to abide by the law Trump signed to require disclosure of all of the Epstein pedophile files incurred the ire even of Republicans. Trump insists that the fault for serial losses in court and scandals lies with Bondi’s lack of finesse in carrying out his orders, certainly not the underlying unconstitutionality, unreasonableness, and baseless actions he demands. He craved a more ruthless hired gun to oversee the weaponization of the Justice Department.” (04/06/26)
https://www.contrariannews.org/p/bondis-replacement-will-be-just-as
- Reason Roundtable, 04/06/26
Source: Reason
“Why Does Trump Want the Biggest Defense Budget Ever?” (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/why-does-trump-want-the-biggest-defense-budget-ever/
- Bulwark Takes, 04/06/26
Source: The Bulwark
“Major MAGA Revolt Over Trump’s ‘War Crime’ Plan.” (04/06/26)
- Rising, 04/06/26
Source: The Hill
“Niall Stanage gives his notes on President Trump’s controversial Truth Social post from this past weekend.” (04/06/26)
- The Remnant with Jonah Goldberg, 04/06/26
Source: The Dispatch
“Has Trump Betrayed His Base?| Interview: Ross Douthat.” (04/06/26)
https://thedispatch.com/podcast/remnant/has-trump-betrayed-his-base-interview-ross-douthat/
- Ron Paul Liberty Report, 04/06/26
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
“Donald Trump’s ‘Bay of Pigs?'” (04/06/26)
- The Headlines, 04/06/26
Source: New York Times
“Inside the Race to Save a U.S. Airman in Iran, and Artemis II Heads Behind the Moon.” (04/06/26)
- Reason Interview: Ro Khanna
Source: Reason
“Congress Has Surrendered on War.” (04/06/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/06/ro-khanna-congress-has-surrendered-on-war/
- The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent, 04/06/26
Source: The New Republic
“Trump Fury Rattles Aides as Midterm Woes Take Worse Turn: ‘He’s Angry.'” (04/06/26)
- EconTalk, 04/06/26
Source: EconTalk
“The Unseen Work: Stewart Brand on Maintenance and Civilization.” (04/06/26)
https://www.econtalk.org/the-unseen-work-stewart-brand-on-maintenance-and-civilization/